Home › Glossary › Letter M

monk

Historical Office
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A man who lives in a monastery under religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience

Detailed Definition
The monk appears in poetry as a figure of contemplation, discipline, and withdrawal from the world. Historically dedicated to prayer, study, and manual labor, monks preserved knowledge and spirituality. In verse, they symbolize asceticism, learning, or repression. Poets use monks to explore themes of solitude, faith, and the conflict between spiritual ideals and human desire, often contrasting monastic silence with worldly noise.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Chaucer’s "The Monk’s Tale," the monk prefers hunting to prayer; William Langland critiques worldly monks in "Piers Plowman"; Victorian poets like Matthew Arnold mourn monks as vanished scholars; The monk in Tennyson’s "The Holy Grail" seeks spiritual truth; Monks appear in manuscript odes copying sacred texts; Their vows symbolize both devotion and repression.
Additional Notes
Monks lived under vows in monasteries, copying texts, farming, and praying—dissolved in England in the 1530s, they became symbols of lost piety or superstition—poetic monks range from devout (medieval lyrics) to decadent (Gothic novels); their cloistered lives contrast with worldly chaos in allegorical or nostalgic verse.
Also Known As
friar (in some contexts) religious brother
Skip to main content